G.I. Resistance

Hastings on Hudson, NY -- In what is probably a first, the Air Force Times this week is publishing a controversial advertisement from 54 U.S. military veterans and veterans organizations urging Air Force drone operators and other military personnel to refuse their orders...and not fly drone surveillance/attack missions.

You join the U.S. military thinking you are going to defend your country. You spend months of intense training that will make you a soldier. Your ego and your pride becomes the high grade oil that makes all the moving parts work smoothly. Your equipment is the best in the world. The pay and the benefits are more than acceptable, seeing that you could not find a job before enlisting.

As we near the holidays, we want to give a big THANK YOU to all of you who responded to our urgent request to contact your local PBS station asking them to air "This is Where We Take Our Stand" in January and February.

If you haven't yet contacted your local station, below is a list of contact links for the largest thirty stations. Just click on the one nearest you and send them a message.Do it this week, send it to your own lists, and let PBS know that you want this story and these veterans to be seen by millions.

It’s been a week since I heard Ethan McCord, Iraq soldier whistleblower, speak at a World Can’t Wait event on the lower west side of Manhattan. I want to process my strong thoughts and feelings in a blog before further time goes by.

I had seen a screening of Wikileaks’ “Collateral Murder” before, but this time it was narrated by one of the soldiers who had been there in Baghdad on the ground in 2003. Who knew the players and who had been the one American Samaritan who had rushed to save two child victims immediately after.

Revolution: In the attack shown in the WikiLeaks video, you were part of the unit that was at the scene, on the ground. Give us a picture of what happened that day.

Ethan McCord: Prior to the Apaches engaging the civilians on the ground. I was with my unit, my company, and I was about five blocks away. And we were engaged in our own skirmish, a firefight if you will, and that's when I heard the Apaches open fire. It's a very distinct sound—it almost cuts the sky open. And we were told we needed to move to that position immediately. So me being one of the only dismounts that day—soldiers on foot, the rest were in vehicles—there were about six more of us, we ran to that location.

When I came up on the scene, the first thing I remember seeing is a group of three men on the corner who had been completely disemboweled. One of the guys, the top of his head was completely off. I remember looking at this and it not seeming real. Maybe it was my own way of shutting it out, but it didn't seem real, looking at the bodies, they didn't seem human.

Today Iraq Veterans Against the War publicly announces our Operation Recovery campaign to Stop the Deployment of Traumatized Troops. Our team of campaign organizers has been working around the clock for the past month to prepare for today's action in Washington, D.C.

The following are statements from four of the people who participated in the Fort Hood troop deployment blockade in Killeen, Texas.

Matthis Chiroux:

I am a former Army sergeant and war resister. I was press-ganged into the Army by the Alabama Juvenile "Justice" System in 2002. While in the military, I occupied the nations of Japan and Germany for more than four years, with shorter tours in the Philippines and Afghanistan.

I was a Public Affairs noncommissioned officer specializing in strategic communications. In reality, I was a propaganda artist. I was discharged honorably to the Individual Ready Reserve in 2007.

While the activists took the width of Clarke Rd. and slowed the buses to a halt, police made no arrests, but instead beat the activists out of the streets using automatic weapons and police dogs so the deploying Soldiers could proceed.

The occupation of Iraq is only being re-branded, not ended. Soldiers are still being deployed.

We received this notice from people planning protests with the 3rd Battalion is sent to Iraq next week. Some of you may have heard about this upcoming action during the webcast we did a couple weeks ago.

This is a nation-wide call to action! Come to Fort Hood, Texas, Aug. 22 to participate in peaceful actions with veterans and anti-war leaders opposing the deployment of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment's 5,000 Soldiers to Iraq. This is your invite. Can you attend?

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World Can't Wait mobilizes people living in the United States to stand up and stop war on the world, repression and torture carried out by the US government. We take action, regardless of which political party holds power, to expose the crimes of our government, from war crimes to systematic mass incarceration, and to put humanity and the planet first.